Twin Galaxies
Encyclopedia
Twin Galaxies is an American
organization that tracks video game world record
s and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. It operates the Twin Galaxies website and publishes the Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, with the Arcade Volume released on June 2, 2007. The Guinness World Records - Gamers Edition 2008 was released in March, 2008 in conjunction with Twin Galaxies, who Guinness World Records
considers to be the official supplier of verified world records to the annual volume.
, founder of Twin Galaxies, visited more than 100 video game arcades
over four months, recording the high scores that he found on each game. On November 10, he opened his own arcade in Ottumwa
, Iowa
, naming it Twin Galaxies. On February 9, 1982, his database of records was released publicly as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard.
Twin Galaxies became known as the official scoreboard, arranging contests between top players. Twin Galaxies' first event attracted international media attention for gathering the first teams of video-game stars. Top players in North Carolina
and California
were formed into state teams that faced off in a "California Challenges North Carolina All-Star Playoff", playing on 17 different games in Lakewood, California
, and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
. California defeated North Carolina 10–7 over the weekend of August 27–30, 1982.
Similar competitions were also conducted during the summers of 1983 and 1984 when Day organized the players in many U.S. states to form teams and compete in high score contests for the Guinness Book of World Records. The states included California, North Carolina, Washington, Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio, Michigan, Idaho, Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Alaska, Iowa and Kansas.
On November 30, 1982, Ottumwa mayor Jerry Parker declared the town "Video Game Capital of the World", a claim that was backed up by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Atari
and the Amusement Game Manufacturers Association in a ceremony at Twin Galaxies on March 19, 1983.
Twin Galaxies' status as the official scorekeeper was further enhanced by support from the major video-game publications of the early 1980s. Beginning in the summer of 1982, Video Games magazine and Joystik magazine published full-page high-score charts taken from Twin Galaxies' data. These high-score tables were published during the entire lives of these magazines. Additional high-score charts also appeared in Videogiochi (Milan
, Italy
), Computer Games, Video Game Player magazine and Electronic Fun magazine. Twin Galaxies' high-score charts also appeared in USA Today
(April 22, 1983), Games magazine and was distributed sporadically in 1982 and 1983 by the Knight-Ridder news service as an occasional news feature, originating from the Charlotte Observer.
Twin Galaxies brought top players together on November 7, 1982, to be photographed by Life magazine
. This photo session is the subject of a recent documentary film, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
, which was screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
. On January 8–9, 1983, Twin Galaxies organized the first significant video-game championship, to crown a world champion. This event was filmed in Ottumwa by ABC-TV
's That's Incredible!
and was aired on the night of February 21, 1983.
In March 1983, Twin Galaxies was contracted by the Electronic Circus to assemble a professional troupe of video game superstars who would travel with the Circus as an "act." With Walter Day hired as the "Circus Ringmaster", Twin Galaxies supplied a squad of 15 world-record holders on Twin Galaxies' high-score tables. Though the Circus was scheduled to visit 40 cities in North America, its Boston inaugural performance, opening in the Bayside Exposition Ctr. on July 15, 1983, lasted only five days, closing on July 19. The players selected by Twin Galaxies for the Circus are believed to be history's first professionally contracted video game players.
On July 25, 1983, Twin Galaxies established the professional U.S. National Video Game Team
, the first such, with Walter Day as team captain. The USNVGT toured the United States during the summer of 1983 in a 44-foot GMC bus filled with arcade games, appearing at arcades around the nation and conducting the 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament, the results of which were published in the 1984 U.S. edition of Guinness World Records
. Under the direction of Day, functioning as an assistant editor for the Guinness Book in charge of video-game scores, the USNVGT gathered annual contest results that were published in the 1984—1986 U.S. editions. In September 1983, the USNVGT visited the Italian and Japanese Embassies in Washington D.C. to issue challenges for an international video game championship. In 1987, the USNVGT toured Europe where it defeated a team of UK video game superstars. Every month between 1991 and 1994, the U.S. publication Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), published a full-page high-score table titled "The U.S. National Video Game Team's International Scoreboard".
On February 8, 1998, Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records (ISBN 978-1-887472-25-8) was published. It is a 984-page book containing scores compiled since 1981. The second edition is planned as a two-volume set, with the first volume containing arcade, MAME, Novelty and pinball scores released on June 1, 2007. The second volume, as yet unreleased, will contain records for PC
games as well as seventh-generation gaming systems
such as the Wii
, the PlayStation 3
, and the Xbox 360
.
As further evidence of this unique status, Ottumwa hosted history's first video game world championship, which was filmed by *ABC-TV's "That's Incredible" on the weekend of January 8–9, 1983 and aired the night of February 21, 1983.
Playing a central role in video game history, Ottumwa was the birth site of the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard and the U.S. National Video Game Team
, two organizations that still exist today. Among the historic firsts that happened in the Video Game Capital of the World were:
On April 29, 2009 Ottumwa announced that it has reclaimed the title Video Game Capital of the World. Subsequent news stories reporting this event appeared in the Des Moines Register and Ottumwa Courier on April 30, 2009. With Walter Day, Billy Mitchell and Steve Sanders in attendance, the Ottumwa government announced plans to develop a Video Game Hall of Fame and Museum and, on May 5, 2009, a Committee was formed with Chris Hoeksema as the Chairman, Danny Anderson as the Vice-Chairman and Elizabeth Bolinger as the Secretary. Mr. Hoeksema was also the founder of the Facebook group. On May 8, 2009, Anderson resigned as Vice-Chairman and was replaced by Josh Gettings, an Ottumwa merchant. At the May 12 meeting, Chris Hoeksema resigned and Terry Mcnitt replaced him as Co-Chairman with Josh Gettings. Josh Bolinger was chosen as Treasurer of the committee and was later chosen as Curator for the IVGHoF. Earlier, at the May 5th meeting, Joshua Gettings distinguished himself by choosing the official name for the proposed facility: International Video Game Hall of Fame.
by Walter Day
and the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard. Walter Day was the Team Captain and the first six members chosen by Twin Galaxies for the team were:
Additional members accepted in 1983:
Additional members accepted in 1984:
Additional members accepted in 1985:
Additional members accepted in 1986:
in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire
as a vehicle to document the cultural impact that video games have exerted on today's society. A second festival is planned but no date has been set.
, Bloomington
, Minnesota
, on the weekend of July 20–22, 2001. This event is also known as the Console Game World Championship and had originally been planned for March 24–25, 2001 at the Sheraton Dallas Brookhollow Hotel in Dallas
, Texas
, but was moved forward to the Mall of America event.
The second Console Video Game World Championship was held the weekend of July 12–14, 2002, at the 2nd Annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival at the Mall of America.
, New Hampshire
. The winner of this renewed video game contest was Dwayne Richard with Donald Hayes coming in second place. This event was descended from the Coronation Day Championships that were conducted by Twin Galaxies in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 2000. The 2nd "Classic Video Game World Championship" was conducted on the weekend of June 30–July 2, 2002. The winner was Dwayne Richard with Donald Hayes again coming in second place. This was the last year the contest was in this format. The following years had the Funspot location organizing and running the contest in a more informal arcade "Player of the Year," format.
In July 2001 and 2002, Twin Galaxies conducted the annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festivals at the Mall of America, attracting approximately 50,000–75,000 attendees each year.
On August 15, 2005, Walter Day and the staff of Twin Galaxies led a contingent of USA and UK video game players to Paris
, France
, where they delivered an eight-foot (2.4 meter) tall Proclamation which proposed a "London vs. Paris" Video Game Championship.
On September 24, 2005, The U.S. National Video Game Team
revived and formed a New England Chapter with Walter Day as the national team captain and David Nelson of Derry
, New Hampshire
, as the chapter captain.
The first contestant to fall was Dwayne Richard; after an hour at the Robotron machine and a score of 3,352,150 he walked away saying no way can a guy play Robotron for a hundred hours. Originally the game he chose to marathon was Armor Attack, Johnny Zee was not able to get it for the contest so Dwayne was forced to pick another game, but just gave up because of the difficulty to marathon Robotron that long. Then, a Japanese tourist visiting Victoria, BC, resigned from the contest after seven hours. The gaming continued unbroken until the 24-hour barrier, in which Tom Asaki lost his Nibbler
game due to a glitch
in the game. Each extra life accumulated would add one to the Extra Lives data (stored as a single byte). Reaching 128 Extra Lives, however, caused a problem; it was erroneously interpreted as a "negative one" by the game's firmware (the game's designer had not anticipated anyone achieving this many Extra Lives) and the game ended immediately. Asaki did not even know of this bug until warned by Billy Mitchell that he was accumulating lives too fast. Tom's game ended with a score of 300 million points.
Mitchell himself was the next to go, after 39 hours. The trackball
broke down due to the body oils from his hands. By the time the machine could be repaired, Mitchell was already in a deep sleep, effectively eliminating him from the competition. His game ended with 10,774,191 points.
Mark Bersabe lost his final man on Asteroids after 45 hours, with a score of 18,552,590 points (far from Scott Safran
's record of 41,336,440 points). Jeff Peters, who played Q*Bert while sitting in a recliner (with the control panel in his lap) lasted until the fifty-hour mark until collapsing from exhaustion, with 19,498,150 points.
The winner of the contest was 18-year-old James Vollandt, who carried his Joust game for 67½ hours. After being the only one remaining in competition (after Peters' elimination), he resorted to dangerous techniques to keep himself awake, including blasting his face with freon, starting at the sixty-hour mark. The game malfunctioned at around 58 hours, wiping out all of his 210 extra lives. However, he earned back forty of them. He left the game voluntarily, with a record-breaking score of 107,216,700 points, a record that stood until 2010, when John McAllister broke the record over live streaming video on justin.tv.
, was screened at the Sundance Film Festival
.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
, a feature documentary about retro arcade gamers, featuring Twin Galaxies, was released in theaters on August 24, 2007. The documentary was in large measure critical of Twin Galaxies' handling of challenges to long-established top scores, suggesting that its organizational structure is rife with conflicts of interest.
Frag, a feature documentary about modern professional gamers, was released on DVD on August 1, 2008 by Cohesion Productions of Cedar Falls, Iowa. The first ten minutes of the documentary recapped Twin Galaxies' role as the pioneers of organized video game playing back in the early 1980s.
The Twin Galaxies posters have attracted media attention in the past few years. For instance, posters #73, #90 and #91 were reproduced in the pages of the Guinness World Records - Gamer's Edition 2008, a high-score compendium issued on March 8, 2008 by Guinness World Records. And, posters #50, #62, #63 and #69 were included in a 3-page story on Twin Galaxies titled "Setting the Record Straight," published in the April, 2006 edition of Game Informer Magazine.
Plus, Joypad Magazine (Paris, France) published posters #4, #7, and #40 in its January, 2003 edition. Recently, Game Room Magazine (www.gameroommagazine.com) featured a Twin Galaxies poster in each of these monthly editions: March, 2008 (Poster #106), April, 2008 (Poster #108), May, 2008 (Poster #112), July, 2008 (Poster #114), August, 2008 (Poster #107), September, 2008 (Poster #118) and November, 2008 (Poster #129).
As collectibles, the poster series has gained a small following with posters occasionally selling for $20 each while at least one copy of poster #1 has sold for $100. Many of the posters published in 2005 and 2006 were commissioned by Billy Mitchell, the noted Pac-Man champion, who wanted to create a series of collectibles to commemorate video game history.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
organization that tracks video game world record
World record
A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...
s and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. It operates the Twin Galaxies website and publishes the Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, with the Arcade Volume released on June 2, 2007. The Guinness World Records - Gamers Edition 2008 was released in March, 2008 in conjunction with Twin Galaxies, who Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
considers to be the official supplier of verified world records to the annual volume.
History
During the summer of 1981, Walter DayWalter Day
Walter Aldro Day, Jr. is the founder of Twin Galaxies, an international organization based in Fairfield, Iowa, that tracks high score statistics for the worldwide electronic video gaming hobby...
, founder of Twin Galaxies, visited more than 100 video game arcades
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
over four months, recording the high scores that he found on each game. On November 10, he opened his own arcade in Ottumwa
Ottumwa, Iowa
Ottumwa is a city in and the county seat of Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,998 at the 2000 census. It is located in the southeastern part of Iowa, and the city is split into northern and southern halves by the Des Moines River....
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, naming it Twin Galaxies. On February 9, 1982, his database of records was released publicly as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard.
Twin Galaxies became known as the official scoreboard, arranging contests between top players. Twin Galaxies' first event attracted international media attention for gathering the first teams of video-game stars. Top players in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
were formed into state teams that faced off in a "California Challenges North Carolina All-Star Playoff", playing on 17 different games in Lakewood, California
Lakewood, California
Lakewood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 80,048 at the 2010 census. It is bordered by Long Beach on the west and south, Bellflower on the north, Cerritos on the northeast, Cypress on the east, and Hawaiian Gardens on the southeast. Major thoroughfares...
, and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
Wrightsville Beach is a town in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. Wrightsville Beach is just east of Wilmington and is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,593 at the 2000 census...
. California defeated North Carolina 10–7 over the weekend of August 27–30, 1982.
Similar competitions were also conducted during the summers of 1983 and 1984 when Day organized the players in many U.S. states to form teams and compete in high score contests for the Guinness Book of World Records. The states included California, North Carolina, Washington, Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio, Michigan, Idaho, Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Alaska, Iowa and Kansas.
On November 30, 1982, Ottumwa mayor Jerry Parker declared the town "Video Game Capital of the World", a claim that was backed up by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
and the Amusement Game Manufacturers Association in a ceremony at Twin Galaxies on March 19, 1983.
Twin Galaxies' status as the official scorekeeper was further enhanced by support from the major video-game publications of the early 1980s. Beginning in the summer of 1982, Video Games magazine and Joystik magazine published full-page high-score charts taken from Twin Galaxies' data. These high-score tables were published during the entire lives of these magazines. Additional high-score charts also appeared in Videogiochi (Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
), Computer Games, Video Game Player magazine and Electronic Fun magazine. Twin Galaxies' high-score charts also appeared in USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
(April 22, 1983), Games magazine and was distributed sporadically in 1982 and 1983 by the Knight-Ridder news service as an occasional news feature, originating from the Charlotte Observer.
Twin Galaxies brought top players together on November 7, 1982, to be photographed by Life magazine
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
. This photo session is the subject of a recent documentary film, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a documentary film directed by Lincoln Ruchti about the golden age of video arcade games. The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival and has also been shown at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival, as well as other film...
, which was screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
2007 Sundance Film Festival
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007 in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival...
. On January 8–9, 1983, Twin Galaxies organized the first significant video-game championship, to crown a world champion. This event was filmed in Ottumwa by ABC-TV
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's That's Incredible!
That's Incredible!
That's Incredible! was an American reality television show that aired on the ABC television network from 1980 to 1984.-Synopsis:In the tradition of You Asked For It, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Real People, the show featured people performing stunts and reenactments of allegedly paranormal events...
and was aired on the night of February 21, 1983.
In March 1983, Twin Galaxies was contracted by the Electronic Circus to assemble a professional troupe of video game superstars who would travel with the Circus as an "act." With Walter Day hired as the "Circus Ringmaster", Twin Galaxies supplied a squad of 15 world-record holders on Twin Galaxies' high-score tables. Though the Circus was scheduled to visit 40 cities in North America, its Boston inaugural performance, opening in the Bayside Exposition Ctr. on July 15, 1983, lasted only five days, closing on July 19. The players selected by Twin Galaxies for the Circus are believed to be history's first professionally contracted video game players.
On July 25, 1983, Twin Galaxies established the professional U.S. National Video Game Team
U.S. National Video Game Team
The U.S. National Video Game Team was founded on July 25, 1983 in Ottumwa, Iowa, USA by Walter Day and the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard.-Members:Walter Day was the Team Captain and the first five members chosen by Twin Galaxies for the team were:...
, the first such, with Walter Day as team captain. The USNVGT toured the United States during the summer of 1983 in a 44-foot GMC bus filled with arcade games, appearing at arcades around the nation and conducting the 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament, the results of which were published in the 1984 U.S. edition of Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
. Under the direction of Day, functioning as an assistant editor for the Guinness Book in charge of video-game scores, the USNVGT gathered annual contest results that were published in the 1984—1986 U.S. editions. In September 1983, the USNVGT visited the Italian and Japanese Embassies in Washington D.C. to issue challenges for an international video game championship. In 1987, the USNVGT toured Europe where it defeated a team of UK video game superstars. Every month between 1991 and 1994, the U.S. publication Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), published a full-page high-score table titled "The U.S. National Video Game Team's International Scoreboard".
On February 8, 1998, Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records (ISBN 978-1-887472-25-8) was published. It is a 984-page book containing scores compiled since 1981. The second edition is planned as a two-volume set, with the first volume containing arcade, MAME, Novelty and pinball scores released on June 1, 2007. The second volume, as yet unreleased, will contain records for PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
games as well as seventh-generation gaming systems
History of video game consoles (seventh generation)
In the history of video games, the seventh generation of consoles is the current generation , and includes consoles released since late by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony...
such as the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
, the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
, and the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
.
Impact of high scores on the media
According to the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, "high-score" attempts enjoyed as much press coverage as any other video-game-related topic reported in the media during the 1982–1985 period. Though the media was often focused on the amazing growth of the video game industry, it was equally as fascinated with the human side of gaming, as typified by the "player vs machine" showdowns that led to new world record high scores set on nearly a daily basis. In fact, Twin Galaxies reports that during that early era it was not unusual for there to be multiple new world records reported in the media on a single day. To illustrate the media's love for the high-score phenomenon, here is a brief sampling of news stories reproduced from the following news resources:- Record try aborted in video game - Arizona Republic, March 9, 1982
- 1-token spree sets record at video game - Charlotte News, Charlotte, NC, September 9, 1982
- Man could crunch U.S. Pac-Man record - Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC, July 17, 1982
- Video game enthusiast gets highest score ever - Kansas City Times, August 18, 1982
- Video champ blasts his way into record book - San Francisco Examiner, September 6, 1982
- Resident saves earth, claims world record - Chapel Hill News, Chapel Hill, NC, November 10, 1982
- Texas gamer works toward high score - Abilene Reporter-News, Abilene, TX, November 12, 1982
- Central student one to beat playing Defender - Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne, WY, December 18, 1982
- Video game champ gets recognition - St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, FL, December 31, 1982
- Contests offer players tokens, recognition - Dallas Morning News, January 15, 1983
- Video Game champion vows he'll never play again - Syracuse Herald-Journal, January 17, 1983
- Videogame records - USA Today, April 22, 1983
- Pac-Man Record? - Washington Post, Washington D.C., May 26, 1983
- Teenager going for video game record - Dublin Courier-Herald, Dublin, GA, June 22, 1983
- Records, like promises, are not always meant to be broken - USA Today, July 7, 1983
- Competitors' lives filled with joysticks - Wilmington Morning Star, Wilmington, NC, June 30, 1984
Ottumwa
On November 30, 1982, Mayor Jerry Parker declared Ottumwa the "Video Game Capital of the World." This bold initiative resulted in many historic firsts in video game history. Among them:- Letter of Congratulations from Iowa Senator Charles Grassley, March 18, 1983
- Parade Day Starts with Pac-Man Game, Ottumwa Courier, March 21, 1983
- Mayor Declares Cystic Fibrosis Video Game Challenge Week in Ottumwa, August 8, 1983
- Ottumwa Proclamation to the People of the Country of Italy, November 15, 1983
- Ottumwa Invites Magician Doug Henning to Tim McVey Day, January 23, 1984
- Ottumwa Issues Mayoral Decree Congratulating Rock-Ola MFG., January 27, 1984
- Ottumwa Mayor Declares "Tim McVey Day," January 28, 1984
- Mayoral Proclamation Opens USA-Canada Video Game Conference in Ottumwa, February 10, 1984
As further evidence of this unique status, Ottumwa hosted history's first video game world championship, which was filmed by *ABC-TV's "That's Incredible" on the weekend of January 8–9, 1983 and aired the night of February 21, 1983.
Playing a central role in video game history, Ottumwa was the birth site of the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard and the U.S. National Video Game Team
U.S. National Video Game Team
The U.S. National Video Game Team was founded on July 25, 1983 in Ottumwa, Iowa, USA by Walter Day and the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard.-Members:Walter Day was the Team Captain and the first five members chosen by Twin Galaxies for the team were:...
, two organizations that still exist today. Among the historic firsts that happened in the Video Game Capital of the World were:
- History's First Video-Game-Themed Parade (Jan. 8, 1983) Des Moines Register, January 9, 1983
- History's First Video Game World Championship (Jan. 8-9, 1983) Dallas Times-Herald, Dallas, TX, January 26, 1983
- History's First Brain Wave Studies on Video Game Champions (July 12, 1983) News Release, July 12, 1983
- History's First Billion-Point Video Game Performance (Jan. 16, 1984) Computer Games magazine, July 1, 1984
- History's First Official Day to Honor a Video Game Player (Jan. 28, 1984) Tim McVey Day Poster, January 28, 1984
Efforts to establish Ottumwa as the site of the Official Video Game Museum
On April 6, 2009, Owen Good, of Kotaku.Com, penned a major article titled: "A Claim to Fame in the Dodge City of Video Games." In this story, he examines Ottumwa's prospects as potentially the "Cooperstown, NY" of the video game industry. On Facebook, a group of Ottumwa citizens have started a campaign to bring recognition to Ottumwa, promoting the idea of a video game museum.On April 29, 2009 Ottumwa announced that it has reclaimed the title Video Game Capital of the World. Subsequent news stories reporting this event appeared in the Des Moines Register and Ottumwa Courier on April 30, 2009. With Walter Day, Billy Mitchell and Steve Sanders in attendance, the Ottumwa government announced plans to develop a Video Game Hall of Fame and Museum and, on May 5, 2009, a Committee was formed with Chris Hoeksema as the Chairman, Danny Anderson as the Vice-Chairman and Elizabeth Bolinger as the Secretary. Mr. Hoeksema was also the founder of the Facebook group. On May 8, 2009, Anderson resigned as Vice-Chairman and was replaced by Josh Gettings, an Ottumwa merchant. At the May 12 meeting, Chris Hoeksema resigned and Terry Mcnitt replaced him as Co-Chairman with Josh Gettings. Josh Bolinger was chosen as Treasurer of the committee and was later chosen as Curator for the IVGHoF. Earlier, at the May 5th meeting, Joshua Gettings distinguished himself by choosing the official name for the proposed facility: International Video Game Hall of Fame.
U.S. National Video Game Team
The U.S. National Video Game Team was founded on July 25, 1983 in Ottumwa, Iowa
Ottumwa, Iowa
Ottumwa is a city in and the county seat of Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 24,998 at the 2000 census. It is located in the southeastern part of Iowa, and the city is split into northern and southern halves by the Des Moines River....
by Walter Day
Walter Day
Walter Aldro Day, Jr. is the founder of Twin Galaxies, an international organization based in Fairfield, Iowa, that tracks high score statistics for the worldwide electronic video gaming hobby...
and the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard. Walter Day was the Team Captain and the first six members chosen by Twin Galaxies for the team were:
- Billy MitchellBilly Mitchell (gamer)Billy L. Mitchell, born July 16, 1965, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, is best known for recording high scores in classic video games from the Golden Age of Arcade Games. He has been claimed by some as the "greatest arcade-video-game player of all time". His achievements include the first perfect score...
, Hollywood, Florida (Had five listings in Guinness that year, a record) - Steve Harris, Gladstone, Missouri (Later founded Electronic Gaming Monthly - EGM)
- Jay Kim, Miami, Florida
- Ben Gold, Dallas, Texas (Won history's first Video Game World Championship, televised by ABC-TV's That's Incredible)
- Tim McVey, Ottumwa, Iowa (Achieved history's first Billion-Point-Score on a video game.)
- "Cat" Cabrera, Fort Lauderdale, Florida Achieved several world records including Asteroids, Popeye, Pacman, Joust and set the longest play on one quarter at 32hr/34 minutes at a Grand Prix sponsored world record attempt on Joust. Later published Video Player Magazine in 1982.
Additional members accepted in 1983:
- Tom Asaki, Bozeman, MT
- Tim Collum, Boyd, TX
- Eric Ginner, Mt. View, CA
- Todd Walker, Milpitas, CA
- Mark Bersabe, San Jose, CA
- Jeff Peters, Etiwanda, California
Additional members accepted in 1984:
- Mark Hoff, Ottumwa, IA
- Leo Daniels, Wilmington, NC
- Chris Emery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Additional members accepted in 1985:
- Perry Rodgers, Seattle, Washington
- Donn Nauert, Austin, Texas
- Dwayne Richard, Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada
Additional members accepted in 1986:
- Gary Hatt, Ontario, California
- Jim Allee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Brent Walker, Austin, TX
- Todd Rogers, Bridgeview, Illinois (First paid pro video game player)
- Eric Gater, Oskaloosa, IA
Chronological timeline
- July 25, 1983; The Team founded in Ottumwa, Iowa by the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard with Walter Day as Team Captain.
- August 11, 1983; Embarked on a national tour to conduct the 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament.
- Cystic Fibrosis Video Game Challenge Week in Ottumwa, August 8, 1983
- Letter from Michigan House of Representatives. Harold Sawyer to USNVGT, August 16, 1983
- "They're masters of Video Games", Spokesman-Review, August 24, 1983
- August 24, 1983; U.S. National Video Game Team inspired Civic Proclamations around the USA.
- Proclamation for Cystic Fibrosis Video Game Challenge Week, Lake Odessa, Michigan, August 8, 1983
- September 15, 1983; Conducted a tour of the East Coast of the United States on behalf of Video Game Player Magazine to verify excessive high-score claims submitted by players.
- September 24, 1983; Hand-delivered official documents to the Japanese and Italian Embassies in Washington, D.C., challenging these countries to an International Video Championship.
- "Benefit Hones Video Game Skill", Chicago Suburban Tribune, August 24, 1983
- "U.S. vs. Japan Video Tournament", CashBox Magazine, August 27, 1983
- "U.S. Video Team Forming, Plans Call for Match with Japan", RePlay Magazine, October 1, 1983
- November 15, 1983; Ottumwa Proclamation to the People of the Country of Italy, November 15, 1983]
- Ottumwa issues a Proclamation, challenging the Country of Italy on behalf of the U.S. National Video Game Team, November 15, 1983
- January 14, 1984; Working with the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, the USNVGT conducted the 1984 Coronation Day to crown the 1983 players, manufacturers and magazines of the past year.
- Twin Galaxies' Coronation Day Crowns Video's Best of '83 - RePlay Magazine, February 1, 1984
- February 12, 1984; The U.S. National Video Game Team attends the February, 1984 AMOA Expo in New Orleans, beginning a long tradition of reviewing new games for the video game industry.
- "U.S. National Video Game Team Rates Games", PlayMeter Magazine, March 1, 1984
- February 10-February 12, 1984; Canada-USA Video Game Team Conference is organized by USNVGT.
- Canadian Video Team Being Formed - CashBox Magazine, March 10, 1984
- U.S. National Video Game Team at 1984 AMOA Expo - Vending Times, December 1, 1984
- April 12, 1985; The Red Cross Video Game Team Invites President Ronald Reagan to Join The Team
- The U.S. National Video Game Team organizes a fundraiser for the Red Cross and announces plans to create a Red Cross Video Team to take to Washington, DC.
- April 8, 1986; The U.S. National Video Game Team is authorized by the Guinness Book of World Records to organize contests.
- Guinness sends letter to U.S. National Video Game Team, April 8, 1986
- April 1, 1987; U.S. National Video Game Team Announces its 1987 "Best Games" at the ACME.
- U.S. National Video Team Picks its Favorites, Vending Times, New York, NY, April 1, 1987
- April 1, 1987; U.S. National Video Game Team Conducts 1987 Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness.
- Video Game Masters Match Will Help March of Dimes, Vending Times, New York, NY, April 1, 1987
- July 12, 1987; The U.S. National Video Game Team organizes 1987 Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness Record Book.
- Video game champ buys 40 hours of play with 25 cents - Torrance Daily Breeze, Torrance, CA, July 12, 1987
Video Game Film Festival
Twin Galaxies organized the first Video Game Film Festival on June 2, 2001, at the Funspot Family Fun CenterFunspot Family Fun Center
Funspot Family Fun Center is a video arcade and self-declared "classic gaming museum" founded in 1952 by Bob Lawton, and located in the village of Weirs Beach in Laconia, New Hampshire, USA. It includes over 500 games, an indoor golf center, a 20-lane ten-pin and candlepin bowling center, cash...
in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire
Weirs Beach, New Hampshire
Weirs Beach is a village within the city of Laconia in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Winnipesaukee. The cruise ship Mount Washington terminates there...
as a vehicle to document the cultural impact that video games have exerted on today's society. A second festival is planned but no date has been set.
Console Video Game World Championships
Twin Galaxies conducted the first Console Video Game World Championship during Twin Galaxies' 1st Annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival at the Mall of AmericaMall of America
The Mall of America, also called MOA and the Megamall, is a shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities, in the United States. It is located southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north of the Minnesota River and is across the...
, Bloomington
Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, on the weekend of July 20–22, 2001. This event is also known as the Console Game World Championship and had originally been planned for March 24–25, 2001 at the Sheraton Dallas Brookhollow Hotel in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, but was moved forward to the Mall of America event.
The second Console Video Game World Championship was held the weekend of July 12–14, 2002, at the 2nd Annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival at the Mall of America.
Classic Video Game World Championship
Twin Galaxies conducted the first "Classic Video Game World Championship" on June 2–4, 2001 at the Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs BeachWeirs Beach, New Hampshire
Weirs Beach is a village within the city of Laconia in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Winnipesaukee. The cruise ship Mount Washington terminates there...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. The winner of this renewed video game contest was Dwayne Richard with Donald Hayes coming in second place. This event was descended from the Coronation Day Championships that were conducted by Twin Galaxies in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 2000. The 2nd "Classic Video Game World Championship" was conducted on the weekend of June 30–July 2, 2002. The winner was Dwayne Richard with Donald Hayes again coming in second place. This was the last year the contest was in this format. The following years had the Funspot location organizing and running the contest in a more informal arcade "Player of the Year," format.
In July 2001 and 2002, Twin Galaxies conducted the annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festivals at the Mall of America, attracting approximately 50,000–75,000 attendees each year.
On August 15, 2005, Walter Day and the staff of Twin Galaxies led a contingent of USA and UK video game players to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where they delivered an eight-foot (2.4 meter) tall Proclamation which proposed a "London vs. Paris" Video Game Championship.
On September 24, 2005, The U.S. National Video Game Team
U.S. National Video Game Team
The U.S. National Video Game Team was founded on July 25, 1983 in Ottumwa, Iowa, USA by Walter Day and the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard.-Members:Walter Day was the Team Captain and the first five members chosen by Twin Galaxies for the team were:...
revived and formed a New England Chapter with Walter Day as the national team captain and David Nelson of Derry
Derry, New Hampshire
-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 33,109 people, 12,537 households, and 8,767 families residing in the town. The population density was 924.8 people per square mile . There were 13,277 housing units at an average density of 143.2/km²...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, as the chapter captain.
Iron Man Contest
In the first week of July, 1985, Twin Galaxies conducted the 1st Twin Galaxies Iron Man Contest. The goal of the Iron Man competition was simple: competitors had to continue playing their game for as long as they could. If anyone passed 100 hours, they would be awarded a $10,000 prize from the Sports Achievement Association.The first contestant to fall was Dwayne Richard; after an hour at the Robotron machine and a score of 3,352,150 he walked away saying no way can a guy play Robotron for a hundred hours. Originally the game he chose to marathon was Armor Attack, Johnny Zee was not able to get it for the contest so Dwayne was forced to pick another game, but just gave up because of the difficulty to marathon Robotron that long. Then, a Japanese tourist visiting Victoria, BC, resigned from the contest after seven hours. The gaming continued unbroken until the 24-hour barrier, in which Tom Asaki lost his Nibbler
Nibbler (video game)
Nibbler is an arcade machine by Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation. Its gameplay is a variant of Snake: The object is to navigate a virtual snake through an enclosed space, while consuming dots along the way. The length of the snake increases with each object consumed, making the game more difficult...
game due to a glitch
Glitch
A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system. It is often used to describe a transient fault that corrects itself, and is therefore difficult to troubleshoot...
in the game. Each extra life accumulated would add one to the Extra Lives data (stored as a single byte). Reaching 128 Extra Lives, however, caused a problem; it was erroneously interpreted as a "negative one" by the game's firmware (the game's designer had not anticipated anyone achieving this many Extra Lives) and the game ended immediately. Asaki did not even know of this bug until warned by Billy Mitchell that he was accumulating lives too fast. Tom's game ended with a score of 300 million points.
Mitchell himself was the next to go, after 39 hours. The trackball
Trackball
A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse with an exposed protruding ball. The user rolls the ball with the thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand to move a cursor...
broke down due to the body oils from his hands. By the time the machine could be repaired, Mitchell was already in a deep sleep, effectively eliminating him from the competition. His game ended with 10,774,191 points.
Mark Bersabe lost his final man on Asteroids after 45 hours, with a score of 18,552,590 points (far from Scott Safran
Scott Safran
Scott Safran was an American video gamer noted for setting the world record score on the arcade game Asteroids which stood for 27 years.- Background :...
's record of 41,336,440 points). Jeff Peters, who played Q*Bert while sitting in a recliner (with the control panel in his lap) lasted until the fifty-hour mark until collapsing from exhaustion, with 19,498,150 points.
The winner of the contest was 18-year-old James Vollandt, who carried his Joust game for 67½ hours. After being the only one remaining in competition (after Peters' elimination), he resorted to dangerous techniques to keep himself awake, including blasting his face with freon, starting at the sixty-hour mark. The game malfunctioned at around 58 hours, wiping out all of his 210 extra lives. However, he earned back forty of them. He left the game voluntarily, with a record-breaking score of 107,216,700 points, a record that stood until 2010, when John McAllister broke the record over live streaming video on justin.tv.
Film
In 2007, a film about Twin Galaxies and video game champions in the 1980s, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the ArcadeChasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a documentary film directed by Lincoln Ruchti about the golden age of video arcade games. The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival and has also been shown at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival, as well as other film...
, was screened at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film that follows Steve Wiebe as he tries to take the world high score for the arcade game Donkey Kong from reigning champion Billy Mitchell...
, a feature documentary about retro arcade gamers, featuring Twin Galaxies, was released in theaters on August 24, 2007. The documentary was in large measure critical of Twin Galaxies' handling of challenges to long-established top scores, suggesting that its organizational structure is rife with conflicts of interest.
Frag, a feature documentary about modern professional gamers, was released on DVD on August 1, 2008 by Cohesion Productions of Cedar Falls, Iowa. The first ten minutes of the documentary recapped Twin Galaxies' role as the pioneers of organized video game playing back in the early 1980s.
Twin Galaxies' Gallery of Posters
Since August 1, 1982, Twin Galaxies has been producing unique, colorful posters to document gaming events. Though the first dozen posters issued in the early 1980s enjoyed printing runs of 500 – 1,000 copies each, the posters created in recent years have been issued as limited editions with only 20-24 copies produced of each one. And, to create value for each one, the latest posters would have individual registration numbers published on the front of each poster (i.e. 1 of 20, 2 of 20, 3 of 20 and so forth). These posters have been issued as free gifts for players who have achieved noteworthy accomplishments or as prizes for contest participants.The Twin Galaxies posters have attracted media attention in the past few years. For instance, posters #73, #90 and #91 were reproduced in the pages of the Guinness World Records - Gamer's Edition 2008, a high-score compendium issued on March 8, 2008 by Guinness World Records. And, posters #50, #62, #63 and #69 were included in a 3-page story on Twin Galaxies titled "Setting the Record Straight," published in the April, 2006 edition of Game Informer Magazine.
Plus, Joypad Magazine (Paris, France) published posters #4, #7, and #40 in its January, 2003 edition. Recently, Game Room Magazine (www.gameroommagazine.com) featured a Twin Galaxies poster in each of these monthly editions: March, 2008 (Poster #106), April, 2008 (Poster #108), May, 2008 (Poster #112), July, 2008 (Poster #114), August, 2008 (Poster #107), September, 2008 (Poster #118) and November, 2008 (Poster #129).
As collectibles, the poster series has gained a small following with posters occasionally selling for $20 each while at least one copy of poster #1 has sold for $100. Many of the posters published in 2005 and 2006 were commissioned by Billy Mitchell, the noted Pac-Man champion, who wanted to create a series of collectibles to commemorate video game history.
Chronology of selected Twin Galaxies contests and events
| Date | Title | Venue | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 3–4, 1982 | National Defender Championship | 33 Arcades across America | Nationwide |
| August 27–30, 1982 | California Challenges North Carolina | Light Years Amusement/Phil's Family Fun Ctr. | Wrightsville Beach, NC/Lakewood, CA |
| January 8–9, 1983 | North America Video Game Olympics | Twin Galaxies/"ABC-TV's "That's Incredible" | Ottumwa, IA |
| August 24–28, 1983 | 1983 North American Video Game Challenge | 8 Cities Across America | Lake Odessa, MI/Omaha, NE/Chicago, IL/San Jose, CA/Seattle, WA |
| January 14, 1984 | 1984 Coronation Day Championship | Twin Galaxies | Ottumwa, IA |
| January 12–13, 1985 | 1985 Coronation Day Championship | Captain Video | Los Angeles, CA |
| April 19–20, 1997 | 1997 Video Game & Pinball Masters Tournament | 12 Cities | Fairfield, IA/Wilmington, NC/Edmonton, AB, Canada/Voorhees, NJ/St. Louis, MO/Kansas City, MO |
| June 27, 1998 | Crowning the Superstars of Mobile, Alabama | Cyberstation Arcade, Springdale Mall | Mobile, AL |
| August 22, 1998 | Crowning the Videogame Superstars of Tulsa, Oklahoma | Funhouse | Tulsa, OK |
| August 29, 1998 | Crowning the Videogame Superstars of St. Louis, MO | Exhilirama Arcade | St. Louis, MO |
| August 29, 1998 | Crowning the Videogame Superstars of Hattiesburg, Mississippi | Cyberstation Arcade | Hattiesburg, MS |
| January 30–31, 1999 | Chicagoland Arcade Championship | Friar Tuck's Arcade | Calumet City, IL |
| July 10, 1999 | National Family Fun Day | 28 States Across America | Nationwide |
| July 29–30, 2000 | Classic Gaming Expo 2000 | Plaza Hotel, Las Vegas, NV | Las Vegas, NV |
| September 25 - October 20, 2000 | Unreal Tournament Championship | Online Competition | International |
| Nov. 20 - Dec. 20, 2000 | Official Tony Hawk Pro 2 World Championship | Home-Based Submissions | International |
| January 1 - March 7, 2001 | Space Empires IV World Championship | Online Submissions | International |
| May 3 - July 2, 2001 | Crazy Taxi World Championship | Home-Based Submissions | International |
| July 20–22, 2001 | 1st Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival | Mall of America | Bloomington, MN |
| May 18, 2002 | Save the Pak Mann Arcade | Pak Mann Arcade | Pasadena, CA |
| May 30 - June 2, 2002 | 2nd Classic Video Game World Championship | Funspot Family Fun Center | Weirs Beach, NH |
| July 12–14, 2002 | 2nd Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival | Mall of America | Bloomington, MN |
| November 12–19, 2005 | November Hi-Score Jamboree at Funspot | Funspot Family Fun Center | Weirs Beach, NH |
| December 2–4, 2005 | Legends of the Golden Age | Totally Amused | Humble, TX |
| April 6–9, 2006 | Toughest Gun in the Dodge City | Apollo Amusements | Pompano Beach, FL |
| April 28–30, 2006 | 2006 Video Game & Pinball Masters Tournament | Pinball Hall of Fame | Las Vegas, NV |
| September 16, 2006 | Grand Rapids Nintendo DS Championship | Ultimate LAN Experience | Grand Rapids, MI |
| November 10–18, 2007 | 5 November Hi-Score Jamboree at Funspot | Funspot Family Fun Center | Weirs Beach, NH |
| March 5, 2008 | Steve Wiebe Attempts Donkey Kong World Record | MIX08 Event | Las Vegas, NV |
| July 17, 2008 | Steve Wiebe Donkey Kong Record Attempt | Twiistup 4 Technology event | Santa Monica, CA |
| August 2, 2008 | Nintendo Wii Shootout | Ultimate LAN Experience | Grand Rapids, MI |
| June 12–14, 2009 | Steve Wiebe Donkey Kong World Record attempt and Walter Day presented inaugural Twin Galaxies Hall of Fame Ceremony | Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show The Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show is an annual pinball and arcade game festival held in Washington state, USA.The Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show draws between 2,500-3,000 collectors and fans each June to the Seattle Center... |
Seattle, WA |
